Reflective account by Jim Dale (ProgM Secretary)
Okay - let me be up-front and confess - this was my first ever webinar! Candidly the idea of passively sitting in front of a computer screen for an hour watching, PowerPoint slides and listening to a speaker drone on did not appeal to me. If it is unenticing for the listener what must it be like for the poor speaker with just a screen to interact with!
Heresy - I hear you shout – this is the age of social media, webinars are accessible to hundreds, indeed thousands, they don’t involve the cost and time of travelling, they allow busy people to get on with their days jobs blah blah. ‘Yes’ I know this but I was still not a webinar fan; that is until earlier today.
Firstly, I want to say a big thank you on behalf of the Committee to Nick Fewings, the Co-Director of TheColourWorks for delivering an interesting, interactive presentation, with passion and flare. Secondly, well done to the APM for hosting this event. Nick’s presentation was about conflict and dysfunction amongst a team of project professionals working in Saudi Arabia. From my experience you don’t have to go very far to find conflict in project teams, but I guess a Bedouin tent in the Arabian Desert is more glamorous than an office in a London Borough Local Authority!
Nick’s presentation was anything but a passive experience. He introduced a series of on-line voting experiences, which were simply brilliant. We were asked, for example, about the typical issues in projects and then asked to ‘vote’ electronically. At the same time a constant stream of useful suggestions, questions and comments were being logged and displayed on the ‘twitter’ stream.
Nick spelt out three common causes of project failure as weak leadership, inadequate resourcing and poor stakeholder engagement. The link is, of course, people. People will ultimately determine project success or failure. This may sound obvious but it is frequently forgotten as we strive to deliver projects focusing on PPM, methodology, systems and processes.
Another fact that Nick emphasized was that we all have different personalities that condition the way we learn and respond to change. Nick’s simple and visual colour-coding system, used in-conjunction with a further poll, reinforced this point.
Now the really neat thing about webinars is that they can easily be recorded and made available to all:
So what learning can I take from Nick’s thought provoking presentation?
1) We must invest time getting to know our teams and what makes them tick;
2) We need to understand why change is resisted and help people progress quickly through the change curve;
3) We need to invest in a range of different communication styles to engage effectively without stakeholders;
4) Take a hat with a built-in fan when visiting the Arabian Desert!
Nick’s presentation slides are made available below to assist sharing and for those with green / yellow tendencies can be further shared with others.
MAHA Global and IPR: Do Actions Speak Louder Than Words?
Arabian Nights - turning a project team around in the desert
1. Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
„Arabian Nights’
Turning A Project Team Around In The Desert
The Colour Works exists to unleash potential, ignite transformational leadership and
coaching capability to transform the way people work and the results they, their
team and their organisation achieve.
Nick Fewings, Director
3. Fact: 70% of business change fails
to achieve desired goals
Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
1. Lack of strong leadership – Know yourself,
warts and all
2. Lack of team skills and proven approach
to change – Know your team & have a plan
3. Lack of effective engagement with
stakeholders – Know your audience &
communicate effectively
Source: NAO/OGC
4. Client Briefing
Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
• Multi-cultural project team of 30 with cultural issues
• No clear leadership
• Silo mentality and poor communication
• Poor understanding of common vision/goals
• Challenging work/life balance
• Low morale
21. Psychological Preferences
Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
There are 3 pairs of preferences:
Introversion – Extraversion
how we react to inner & outer experiences
Thinking – Feeling
how we make decisions
Sensation – Intuition
Carl Gustav Jung
1875-1961
how we take in & process information
23. The Insights 4 Colour Energies
Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
On a bad day…
Stuffy
Indecisive
Suspicious
Cold
Reserved
Aggressive
Controlling
Driving
Overbearing
Intolerant
Docile
Bland
Plodding
Reliant
Stubborn
Excitable
Frantic
Indiscreet
Flamboyant
Hasty
24. Complementary Styles
Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
Sunshine Yellow
Strengths
Quick to build relationships
Friendly and sociable
Adaptable, imaginative
Can see the big picture
Weaknesses
May lack detail and focus
Too casual for some
Poor planner
Can lose interest
Cool Blue
Weaknesses
A bit reserved at first
Overlook others‟ feelings
May be rigid & unimaginative
Can focus on unimportant details
Strengths
Knowledgeable and detailed
Has an air of competence
Asks lots of questions
Very thorough right to the end
25. Complementary Styles
Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
Earth Green
Fiery Red
Strengths
Builds deep relationships
Natural listener
Sincere and warm
Patient
Weaknesses
Can be seen as arrogant
Poor listener
Can be too cold and pushy
May not let others
finish speaking
Weaknesses
Slow to adapt to change
Seem to lack enthusiasm
Unsure of themselves
Reliant on others
Strengths
Love challenges
Want to get things done
Confident of their ability
Influence others
44. Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
“People do not resist
change – people change
all the time. What people
resist is having others
impose change on them”
Margaret Wheatley
Harvard University
45. Leading Complex Change
Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
Skills
+
Incentives
+
Feedback
+
Action Plan
= Confusion
+
Incentives
+
Feedback
+
Action Plan
= Anxiety
+
Feedback
+
Action Plan
= Resistance
+
Action Plan
= Frustration
Vision
+
Vision
+
Skills
+
Vision
+
Skills
+
Incentives
+
Vision
+
Skills
+
Incentives
+
Feedback
+
Vision
+
Skills
+
Incentives
+
Feedback
+
= Treadmill
Action Plan
Thousand (2000) adapted from
Knoster, T. (1991)
= CHANGE
47. ‘The Famous Five’
Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
Clarify The Change
Involve Staff
Manage Resistance
Communicate
Track Progress
48. 4. Communicate - Feedback
Inspiring People,
Delivering Results
Detailed written Goal directed
information
Action orientated
Measures of success
Time focussed
Clear unambiguous
messages One point of contact
Logical not emotive Small task force
What is expected of Opportunities to
individuals share ideas
Small groups Face to face
Ability to give Visual
feedback
Q & A sessions Involvement
60. The Result
Inspiring
People, Delivering
Results
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Multi-cultural project team of 30 with cultural issues
Broke down the cultural barriers
No clear leadership
Leader identified and agreed
Silo mentality and poor communication
Barriers removed and lines of communication
established
Poor understanding of common vision/goals
Vision agreed and goals clarified
Challenging work/life balance
Social events put in place and weekend activities
Low morale
Improved morale, self-esteem and buzz
61. 12 Months Later – Client Feedback
Inspiring
People, Delivering
Results
"Through Colour Works, we have learnt a lot
about ourselves and the dynamics of the team.
By sharing our individual profiles with each other
and focusing on our 'team wheel' we have been
able to develop a much better understanding of
our different styles and strengths and how they
can be used to complement each other.
The team development days and Team Audits
have helped us to build better relationships and
work more effectively as a whole project team our communication is more open , collaborative
working is more focused and we have a greater
appreciation of the contribution each member
makes to the team resulting in our project being
back on track and delivering against client needs"
62. What You Can Do Next
Inspiring
People, Delivering
Results
• Obtain a free sample Discovery Profile and Team
Performance Report
• Visit The Colour Works Community page at
www.thecolourworks.com for free tips, hints,
articles, blogs on leadership, communication and
team-work
• Connect on LinkedIn
<Put up first level answers only> As you can see, it seems to be the people issues <Second level wordings> There are simple solutions/rules to assist successful change - how do you score so far???
All through the Insights colour model Day is time for you – some inward looking – some outward
Hippocrates was born around 460BC Known as the father of modern medicine – was the first to dismiss the belief that illness was caused by curses, evil spirits or the will of the gods – but by physical problems with the body itself He was also the first to theorise that thoughts and feelings came from the brain and not the heart He also was the first to notice that people had different behavioural traits – which he believed were caused by excesses of bodily fluids. Nothing of Hippocrates writings survive but his work was taken and expanded on by Aristotle and Plato and eventually by a Roman physician called Galen, (AD 190) who came up with the ‘choleric’, ‘sanguine’ etc labels. The Four Humours theories were still believed up until the 1840’s (1865 in America) and blood letting, emetics, blistering, purges etc were used to treat illnesses by attempting to address imbalances in the humours. Human Behaviour Hippocrates saw a basic four behaviours which were adopted and described as Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic and Melancholic. He also grouped together the types of behaviour that these types of people could be predicted to show. Jung the psychologist picked up on these behavioural types and studied them carefully and it is his work on which the colour model is based. Which type are you? Fiery Red? Sunshine Yellow? Earth Green? Cool Blue? Or perhaps you see yourself as a combination? Whichever you are – recognise that your clients may be another type altogether – making their behaviour and reactions very different to your own.
Hippocrates was born around 460BC Known as the father of modern medicine – was the first to dismiss the belief that illness was caused by curses, evil spirits or the will of the gods – but by physical problems with the body itself He was also the first to theorise that thoughts and feelings came from the brain and not the heart He also was the first to notice that people had different behavioural traits – which he believed were caused by excesses of bodily fluids. Nothing of Hippocrates writings survive but his work was taken and expanded on by Aristotle and Plato and eventually by a Roman physician called Galen, (AD 190) who came up with the ‘choleric’, ‘sanguine’ etc labels. The Four Humours theories were still believed up until the 1840’s (1865 in America) and blood letting, emetics, blistering, purges etc were used to treat illnesses by attempting to address imbalances in the humours. Human Behaviour Hippocrates saw a basic four behaviours which were adopted and described as Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic and Melancholic. He also grouped together the types of behaviour that these types of people could be predicted to show. Jung the psychologist picked up on these behavioural types and studied them carefully and it is his work on which the colour model is based. Which type are you? Fiery Red? Sunshine Yellow? Earth Green? Cool Blue? Or perhaps you see yourself as a combination? Whichever you are – recognise that your clients may be another type altogether – making their behaviour and reactions very different to your own.
Page 22 Cover…. Ipsative and Normative data Ipsative is self reporting – how you see yourself in relation to the statements Normative data is comparative to others The profiles are therefore self reported but compared to other types Conscious & Less conscious persona – read Blind Spots page - 13 Number of colours above the line Bi-Polar dynamics Preference flow
Read Value to the Team – page 10 Lists the attributes you bring to any team or organisation Are these being used to the full?
Handout on Colourful Planning You will have your own planning processes and preferred models Here is a colour model that maximises the skills of the team and your people.
Use Profiles – Communication Do’s & Don’t’s – Page
Issue Adapting & Connecting Template & relate back to Recognising Type Exercise What can we do more of to improve working relationships? Foot on the peddle – foot off
Remember the communication needs
Sounds simple doesn’t it. Not a new model – been around for ages However, the reason so many people get it wrong is that they do it in one particular way – THEIR WAY! Are we playing chess or snakes and ladders? Utilise the skills of the team and the staff. Do the above in a way that engages all 4 colour energies.
All through the Insights colour model Day is time for you – some inward looking – some outward
All through the Insights colour model Day is time for you – some inward looking – some outward